Your Memories of the Raj

David Lytton Cobbold

"We fell in love with your hotel on arrival – the warm welcome, the décor of the
rooms, the coal fire in the grate and the atmosphere of an age gone by. It must
surely be one of the best hotels in the world – at least in our experience it is.

"The reason for this our first visit to Darjeeling is to follow in the footsteps
of our forbears. I am travelling with my wife, Christine, my sister, Susan, and
a first cousin, Rosanagh. Three of us are grandchildren of Victor, 2nd Earl of Lytton,
and his wife, Pamela. Victor was born in Simla in 1877, when his father, Robert,
Ist Earl of Lytton, was Viceroy. Before he left India in 1880, Robert inaugurated
the as yet uncompleted Darjeeling Himalayan Mountain Railway.

"In 1922 Victor, with his family, returned to India as Governor of Bengal. During
his five years of service, Darjeeling was home for six months of the year. All the
family loved the mountains and they made frequent expeditions from here into the
surrounding country and to Sikkim and Tibet. Of their four children, Antony, Hermione,
Davina and John, only Hermione, my mother, survives aged 96. Reading her memoirs
and diaries and looking at the albums of photographs of those years, I noted that
a regular companion on their holiday expeditions was Mr. Laden La.

"Imagine therefore the amazement and joy when we discovered that this unique and
magnificent hotel is owned by his daughter, aged 98, and managed by his grandson
and great grandson. It was pure magic to meet with Mrs. Tenduf La and all the family.
She remembers my mother, Hermione, and I am sure that my mother will remember her
when we tell her of our adventures.

"The ride on the Toy Train up to Darjeeling was an unforgettable experience but
our stay at the Windamere has been as from a dream.

"On behalf of my wife, Christine, and my sister, Susan Blount, and of my cousin,
RosanaghRaben, daughter of Davina, I thank you all most heartily."

Margaret Moore

On one particular holiday from Calcutta to Dibrugarh in Assam by river steamer,
we stayed in a tea garden owned by my father's firm, MacNeill&Co.. The planter
had recently shot a rogue elephant and had had the tusks removed. On our departure,
our bearer led the way to the boat with our luggage and in his hands were these
magnificent tusks. My father brought him to tasks but was told "they must belong
to you, Sahib, as you are the 'Burra Sahib'. Our bearer was bitterly disappointed
to have to leave the tusks behind."

Judy Morris

We rode ponies wherever we wished, picnicked on the khud-side and roller-skated
at the Gymkhana Club. The latter sold the most delicious cake called 'white lady'.
I think we all knew when we left that we had been particularly lucky to have had
three wonderful years."

Elizabeth Barrie

"My memories of India during the Raj – 1940-44 – are of great happiness and
personal freedom. Released from our almost Victorian regime at school in England
to the amazing freedom we were allowed in Darjeeling was incredible.

" Living in Calcutta during the holidays with my parents showed another side to
the 'Raj'.

"We seemed to have innumerable servants who had their own strict hierarchy: cook,
kitmagar, bearer, ayah, masaalchi and the sweeper. The sweepers' duties always included
looking after the family dogs! Father was driven to the office every morning, his
driver, 'a Pathan', incredibly smart in white drills and a magnificent dark blue
'pugri'.

"The cook was a 'Mugh' from what is now Pakistan – he produced food that could rival
many a French chef which he prepared in the most primitive conditions.

" I can remember my father's shout of 'Koi Hai' which brought the bearer running
to take off his shoes to replace them with slippers when he got back from the office;
or alternatively, a request for a 'chotta-peg' (not something perhaps to be proud
of – but that is how it was!). I don't think there was any lasting ill will and
we all wept when we left.

"The European society had its own very strict social hierarchy – led by the I.C.S.
– you knew your place and you kept it.

"India has ways of binding you to it and I am happy to say my husband feels the
same – we will continue to return while we can."

Jane Barclay

"My childhood memories of India are very scattered – an elephant coming to our home
in Assam to take me for a ride every morning – pineapples growing in the hillsides
– brilliant colours everywhere – sitting at table with our legs and feet in bags
to keep off mosquitoes – taking two days to travel to school, waiting for trains
that could run up to a day late.

"In Darjeeling I remember living in the Windamere for the summer of 1941, having
chickenpox in room no. 11 and later, with my brother, having measles in room no.1.
And (when I was fit!) going to school every morning on a pony from the Chowrasta
– a piebald name Black Beauty. I remember the mountains with the pink of the sun;
the incredible steepness of the khudside never worried us – and walking along the
pipeline with the sheer drop below.

"I was just nine when I left Darjeeling and being here again has brought back memories
of a happy life."

"My father, Humphrey Gilbert – Carter, came to Calcutta Botanic Garden to work on
the Botanical Survey of India before the First World War. I can't remember his impression
of the work, but I do know that when things got unbearable in Calcutta they made
the tortuous journey to Darjeeling. His greatest love was wild flowers and trees
and he and my mother would have been blissfully happy wandering the hills. After
the war he was given the Directorship of the Cambridge Botanic Garden and they never
returned to India. His name in the Botanical world became very well known.

"Their love of India and Indian people never left them. For a long time now I have
been intrigued to find out just what this lovely place was like. Now, at last at
the age of 71, I am here, and there really is a magic about it, and now there is
the Windamere.

Rita Grey

"I was born in Nagpur in what was then Central India in 1933 and left India in 1947
after partition. We were the fourth generation on my father's side and third generation
on my mother's to have lived here.

My great grandfather was Henry Haversham Godwin-Austin who, as part of the Great
Survey of India, was the first person to survey in the Karokaram Range near Kashmir.
The second highest mountain in the world was named after him – Mt. Godwin-Austin.
Today it also known as K2 (K for Karokaram and 2 for the order in which it was surveyed).
He married my great grandmother, Kudiji, the daughter of a wealthy landowner and
she was with him on his surveying treks. She died in her second childbirth while
in the mountains.

"It was 1857 and the Indian Mutiny had just taken place and a mixed blood offspring
would not have been well-received amongst the English gentry in England who had
lost so many of their sons in the Mutiny. So he gave his first son, Edward, to be
adopted by a family, the Milners, who decided to remain in India (when Kudiji died,
the 2nd baby also died). However he paid for Edward's schooling right through Engineering
College in Roorkee.

"Godwin-Austin was also a very notable watercolour artist and is listed among the
ten best of this genre in England. His grandfather Henry Godwin was commander-in-chief
of the Burma Expeditionary Force and fought in the battle of Pegu which resulted
in Burma being annexed to India and becoming part of the British Empire.

"Leaving India in 1947 was a terrible wrench for our family. We went to England
and then to Canada but always our dearest friends have been those who have shared
our Indian background and memories. With them we can still use our Hindi (as best
we remember it!) and there is so much to talk about and even more that is just simply
understood.

"Coming back after nearly 50 years, I feel the pain of our departure is finally
being healed."

Martin Pinnell

"The only memory I have of my childhood in India was of the 1934 earthquake. My
father, who was then Deputy Commissioner of the Darjeeling District, was in camp
at Bagdogra – there was no airport then, just a large open space in which had been
pitched a dozen tents which provided living accommodation and offices for my father,
mother, brother and me, and also for the English family – Mr. English of the Indian
Police, his wife and children.

"One fine day my brother and I were out in the open near the camp, playing with
a toy gramophone,when suddenly the needle shot across my favourite record "The March
of the Toy Tin Soldiers" scratching it and causing me deep distress. In a tented
camp, there was little else to be damaged by the earthquake: but at our home in
Darjeeling, called 'Little Chevremont', a chimney had fallen into the bedroom, which
my brother and I used, and much damage was done to Government House and other buildings.

"As was the habit in those days, my brother and I were 'sent home to school' in
1935. My brother, 3 years older than me, had had a governess who taught him
for several years, and as I used to listen to many of the lessons, I could read
and write well by the time I was 6, and I can remember reading aloud to a posse
of children on the ship going home.

"In the summer of 1940, I was put on the 'City of London' at Liverpool, and sailed
to Calcutta to be with my parents. They had enrolled my brother and me in the 'New
School' which was set up in Alipore to cater for the many British children evacuated
from UK. The school later settled in Darjeeling.

"One of my first recollections of returning to Darjeeling as a boy of 11 was that
the first time that I went to the Capital cinema, I was not allowed to pay for a
ticket, but shown to the best seat at the back. I told my mother when I got
home, and she was cross, and told me to go back to the cinema at once and pay the
full amount for the seat I had used. I learned that it was almost a sacred rule
of the I.C.S. that its officers must not accept gifts or favours of any kind: the
manager of the cinema had possibly heard that a son of a former Deputy Commissioner
had arrived in Darjeeling – but anyhow I ran back to the cinema to pay for that
seat. I live now in Western Australia, where one state premier and a couple of well-known
business tycoons are in prison for corruption, a second state premier only just
avoided a prison sentence, and a third state premier is awaiting trial. It is for
me a fond memory that there was a time and place when there was integrity in government.

"The New School in Darjeeling leaves me full of happy memories. Its staff had been
recruited from whoever was not involved in the War – Harold Loukes, a Quaker and
a conscientious objector, had brave 'new' theories of education, including a reliance
on self-discipline rather than iron rule, and co-education –both of them new ideas
in the English tradition. Mary Loukes, his wife, taught biology. G.C. Woods, an
elderly but brilliant mathematician (and Cambridge Wrangler) taught maths. MlleBossenec,
who had been at Santiniketan translating Rabindranath Tagore's works into French,
taught French. Tony Lamaro, a former wrestling champion of Australia, taught P.T.

"The school had been lent a small playing field which I think belonged to St. Paul's,
and after I took a cricket ball in the mouth and broke a tooth, I was told I didn't
have to play any sport if I didn't want to – so I spent my time doing other things.
I was secretary of the school debating society and of the school photographic club.
I remember that after the photographic darkroom at Eden Falls was closed and the
room given over to some other use, ( I was I think the only person who had made
frequent use of the darkroom), I stood up at a school meeting and addressed the
headmaster 'Sir, the Photographic Club has been deprived of its premises'. It was
my first political speech.

"All in all, my teenage years in Darjeeling were a happy time. It is a time in one's
life when one has many different lessons to learn, and those three years in Calcutta
and Darjeeling certainly broadened my life.

"After doing my School Certificate at the New School, I was sent to South Africa
for sixth form work, and after the War I went to Oxford. I worked for IBM for most
of my working life, and I now live with my wife and 3 daughters plus grandchildren
in Perth W.A.
"One last message for you who read this: I think that all of us who knew India in
the 1930's and 1940's have a duty to tell the history of that time to future generations.
When my father was old and bed-ridden, I bought him a tape recorder and I have 17
cassettes of his memoirs of Bengal. So far, these have been printed off only for
family and a few friends, but maybe I will be able to get it published.

"A few years ago, maybe 1992, 'The Australian' newspaper printed a letter in its
correspondence page from someone seeking to denigrate Britain, and the letter contained
words similar to 'In 1942 the British deliberately killed half the population of
Bengal by commandeering the rice stocks in the province and starving the people".
At home, I happen to have my father's copy of the Commission of Enquiry report on
the Bengal famine, as well as other papers of that time, so I wrote to 'The Australian'
reciting the facts as established by the Commission. At first, they did not print
my letter, but after I spoke to their WA state manager, they agreed to print a fairly
brief letter from me. But many people will have read and believed that first wickedly
untrue statement!"

Robert Congreve Sandys

"We have made a number of trips to the sub-continent, always with great enjoyment.
This is, however, our first visit to Darjeeling. We came because my father, Alec
Sandys, had visited Darjeeling as a young man and the visit had a profound effect
on him. Many were the time that he talked about the life and the hospitality that
he found on the hill, and the majesty of Kanchenjunga.

"My father was born in 1890. After Cambridge, he was invited with his two younger
sisters to visit India. The visit took place shortly before the 1914-18 War. The
invitation was extended to them by the Beagley family who had close links with the
Indian Army. Connie, my father's elder sister, had become engaged to Charlie Beagley
and the Beagley family were keen to meet other members of her family. The visit
was a huge success. My father was a shy man, but the two girls were not shy! They
were young and pretty and revelled in the attention they received. They moved from
parties to balls, to dinners, loving every moment of it. They had, however, one
defect which became notorious. The never arrived on time, and on one notable occasion
turned up an hour late for a dinner party at which the other guests were fuming
at being made to await their arrival. My father, wisely, distanced himself from
their activities and made a series of expeditions. The one which he recalled with
the greatest satisfaction was the trip to Darjeeling.

"Alec Sandys had been encouraged to lead the party to India by his father, Francis
Sandys, who had served in the Indian Army for many years. In a strange coincidence,
Francis had, as a boy, been brought up in Ireland with a Beresford and a Roberts.
Later, Beresford was to become an admiral with a distinguished naval war record.
Roberts became Lord Roberts, leading the British in the Indian Mutiny and other
campaigns. Affectionately known to the British public as 'Bobs', he was to end his
career as C.I.G.S. of the British army. Francis Sandys served with him throughout
his military career and they remained great friends all their lives. They were cousins
and there was a close family bond.

"Another coincidence – 'Bobs' won a VC for his work in the Indian Mutiny. His son
was to receive a posthumous VC in the 1914–18 War. The Congreve family, who were
also related to the Roberts and the Sandys, also won Victoria Crosses. General Congreve
won his for valorous work in the Boer War, and his son Billy Congreve was awarded
the decoration after he was killed in action in 1916. Thus, both the Roberts and
Congreve fathers and sons had secured Victoria Crosses, and they are the only two
pairs to have done so.

"My cousin, Peter Sandys-Clark, was killed in action in North Africa in 1943 and
also won a Victoria Cross. The press, who badly needed good news at that time, made
a great thing about the fact that all five of these military men were members of
the same family. Photographs were published in the leading newspapers of all five.

"So there are many reasons why India has been a country of great fascination to
me and also to Linda. On this trip we were determined to come to Darjeeling, which
has greatly exceeded our expectations.

"The Windamere is a great hotel. We have also had the great good fortune to meet
Tenki and Sherab and a number of their friends. Their company has been the high
point of our visit. They will be remembered with great affection and with the hope
that at some time soon we will meet again."

Mrs. J. Packard

Darjeeling 1928 – 1931

"I came to Darjeeling on the 3rd of March 1928 with my husband Major J.E.E. Packard
of the 2nd Battalion, the King's Own Royal Regiment from Rawalpindi where the regiment
was stationed. He had been seconded to the Staff Command based in Calcutta where
we had a flat in the Fort for the winter months. The whole staff came up from March
to October making their headquarters at Jalapahar.

"We put the car on the train from Calcutta to New Jalpaiguri and motored up to Darjeeling
to our first house The Limes. It was like entering Paradise after the heat of the
North West Frontier.

"We had a very social life with dances at the Everest Hotel, Rockville Hotel, visits
to St. Joseph and St. Paul schools, riding or motoring to Ghoom and Tiger Hill or
down to Rangeet. We played tennis, watched clay pigeon shooting or went down to
the races at Lebong. Somehow our two horses Tommy and StinkaKarez arrived from Rawalpindi
but we often rode the tat ponies from Chowraster down the steep hills or had coffee
at Valdos or the Rendezvous. We used the Gymkhana Club a lot as there was skating,
bridge, amateur dramatics, children's parties, dinners and dances. When the General
came up there was all the more formal functions held at the Maharaja's palace then
called Government House. We often had friends to stay for holidays in the hills,
and we enjoyed the company of resident friends like the Mazundars and their daughter
Tara.

"This social life was only made possible by the help of our Nepalese and Tibetan
servants. The cook came for his orders every day as he did the shopping. I had to
give him at least three days' notice if we wanted coffee. There were certain customs
to observe to make life run smoothly. For instance turning a blind eye to certain
amounts of food disappearing. Some wives gave themselves a lot of trouble by counting
the eggs or measuring the tea. My husband's personal servant Bhudrahdin was always
with us. He used to be on the station at Karachi in some miraculous manner
to meet us after we returned from leave in England. Nima, a red hat Tibetan, pushed
the pram for Nanny; once he was delighted to collect up the locusts that had swarmed
all over it.

"Our elder daughter was born at The Limes on the 2nd of April, just a month after
our arrival. My mother-in-law stayed with us and grew vegetables in the garden there.
She came with us on a riding/walking trip to Sikkim being carried in a 'dandy' chair,
often demanding 'Put me down' as she observed some rare plant. An entry in my diary
for 8.9.1930 blandly announces the arrival of our second daughter. 'Put petrol on
my hair' must have been a craze then; had tea with James; did not feel very well;
took rickshaw to Eden Sanatorium, baby born 11 pm. We were living at Catherine Villa
No. 1. Later on we had No.2 Mounteagle.

"We had several gooming expeditions from Darjeeling, leaving at 5 am, motoring to
Chiliparivia Siliguri and into the jungle to a dak bungalow near Madan Hat where
nine elephants would be waiting for us. The elephants each with its mahout would
proceed further in to the machans, a platform in a tree, where we would sit in silence
from 8 pm till 1 am, with a dead goat below us waiting for the tigers.

"We left India for England in October 1931 and often though of our wonderful life
in Darjeeling".

Lawrence Fleming

"In October 1940 the New School was founded in Calcutta to cater for children of
both sexes evacuated from Britain to join their parents who were already in
India. Most of them had long sea voyages around the Cape of Good Hope and the arrival
in India was the end of one adventure and the beginning of another.

"The original idea was that the school should spend two terms in Calcutta and one
in Darjeeling, but after the first year this proved so expensive that it had to
be abandoned. So in March 1942 the school settled permanently in Darjeeling, in
several rented houses – The Dingle, Terpsithia, Manor Lodge, Gleneden, Ashantully
and Eden Falls, where the classrooms were. A headmaster was found in the person
of Harold Loukes, who later became Reader in Education at Oxford University. He
kept discipline to a minimum and my principal recollection of the school is of the
wonderful freedom we had, to roam to Khudside, to walk to Ghoom and beyond, to bathe
in the mountain streams below Darjeeling and Tiger Hill. The sheer beauty of the
place left its mark on us all, certainly on me, and I can never be sufficiently
grateful to Darjeeling simply for being there, welcoming us, absorbing us and giving
us a stability which many of our generation were never to achieve. In return
I believe that we absorbed much of it into ourselves, the colour, the music, and
the feeling of being watched over by a benevolent mountain, rarely though we ever
saw Kanchenjunga.

"The school disbanded at the end of 1944, after the School Certificate exams. As
I obtained entrance to Cambridge University on my results in these exams, the teaching
must also have been quite good, though the difficulty of finding qualified staff
must have been enormous. To come back now, fifty years later, to find the
town still here and prospering, to find the wonderful Windamerewhere our mother
always stayed on her rare visits to us – offering us the fantastic welcome that
it did gave me at least more pleasure than I can very well express. Old memories
revived, all of them happy, and an old friendship with the town was renewed, strengthening
a feeling for it that was already strong. So, thank you, Windamere, past and present,
for many wonderful kindnesses."

Many of you who come to India are keenly interested in the past and some of
you have Raj connections. There are incidents in your life, or in the lives of your
relations in the India of old, that give you pleasure to recall. And it is to you
that we address this message: please share your memory of the Raj with those who
did not have the luck to be there. A paragraph or two, or a longer account, with
photos if any, would do nicely thank you. Send us your Raj memories
and we shall be glad to include your recollections in our Memory Book.

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